The Mariners signed right-handed reliever Jamey Wright and added him to the major league roster, according to the team. In a related move, the club optioned Chad Cordero to Triple A Tacoma and Cordero opted to become a free agent instead of accepting the assignment.
Wright, 35, had been pitching at Triple A for the A's ever since the Indians released him. He struggled through 21.1 major league innings with Cleveland, posting a 5.48 ERA and walking as many as he struck out (nine). Wright allowed nine walks and 23 hits in 14 Triple A innings, striking out 16.
Cordero appeared in the majors for the first time since 2008 this year, walking five and allowing ten hits in 9.2 innings of work for the M's. The 28-year-old struck out five, but didn't recapture the form that saw him save 113 games for the Nationals from 2005-07.
Man, Cordero is why bad teams shouldn’t waste high draft picks on quick moving relievers. The guy is basically toast in his 20s. His first few years could have been really useful on a competitive team, but on the Nationals, his good years only made a difference to fantasy teams, and they never flipped him. Now he might never contribute anything to a decent team, and the Nationals got nothing for him.
The Nationals were always asking too much for him. IIRC, 2007 was the year the most trade rumors circulated about him. The Nationals thought they were trading the Cordero from 2005 when he clearly wasn’t that type of pitcher anymore.
Absolutely, but they shouldn’t have drafted him in the first place if they weren’t prepared to flip him early.
I think it’s a prime example of why Jim Bowden was such a terrible GM. Chad was a great pitcher and, at the time, the Nats had way more needs than closer. At the same time, it’s hard to predict when the injury bug will bite and unfortunately for Chad, it hit him early in his career. What absolutely killed him was Manny Acta marching him and his 80mph fastball out there to save games and he was just getting bombed.
I’m forgetting the exact year that Cordero was drafted but he was very much an Expos let’s save some dough pick and not a Nationals pick. There’s a story about how they got him in a room without an agent and showed him a deal and talked about how he’d get to the majors quick if he signed it. They had him as a very signable guy when they were either broke or under MLB control. I doubt that Rizzo or even Bowden would have drafted Cordero under the Lerner ownership group.
On the other side, the Nationals absolutely needed to move him in 2006 or 2007. That would have been a tough pill for the fan base to suffer, but it was necessary as part of a complete rebuild. Bowden, however, didn’t believe in rebuild or functional youth or prospect management of things that required building a patient foundation for an organization. Cordero’s value to the Nats is yet another cautionary tale of that period. Old Leatherpants could dumpster dive and occasionally pull a Soriano out of his behind, but he didn’t get the long term strategery needed to build up the organization.
That said, Cordero was a fan favorite and I really enjoyed watching The Chief’s saves during 2005, his all-star season with Livan Hernandez. I hope that he finds his way back to the bigs. His velocity was never that high, though, and losing any stuff due to injury is dangerous for his long term career health.
Certainly won’t disagree with anything you said. And another point against Bowden is that when he pulled Soriano out of the air, he didn’t flip a rental of him for Kubel and Baker when he had the chance.
Old Leatherpants lucked out on that one. He got two picks out of the type A free agent. Josh Smoker has been a bust and is currently sporting an ERA around 7 in low A ball. Jordan Zimmermann, however, is the best pitcher not named Strasburg in the Nats organization and was their top pitching prospect heading into last year. So far his recovery from Tommy John is looking ok, and he should be pitching for the Nats in mid-August. Went to see his start for Potomac last night, and he is making solid progress in his recovery.
I don’t know if I’d classify Smoker a bust just yet. He is only 21 years old and does have time to fix his problems, but I will agree with you that after 3 seasons in the minors, he should be playing better than an over-7 ERA and 1.8 WHIP.
Well, there’s another sign that the bucket has been kicked. I can only imagine Wright will be pitching on days that Wakamatsu wants to give Vargas and Fister shorter starts.
ugh, they keep going in circles
i dont get it. Cordero at least has had “good” years. What has Wright ever done? Id rather have a player who has been good then a player who hasnt and probably wont
i dont get it. Cordero at least has had “good” years. What has Wright ever done? Id rather have a player who has been good then a player who hasnt and probably wont